Chris Bryant has publicly clashed with Andy Burnham after the shadow health
secretary warned that Labour must improve or face defeat at the next
election.

The frontbench MP said he did not agree with criticisms from Mr Burnham and a succession of shadow ministers and backbench MPs that Labour must communicate better with voters in order to win back power.

Mr Bryant, the shadow Home Office minister, insisted that his party had been delivering “a strong and coherent message” to the public in recent weeks.

There is still plenty of time for Labour to win over voters before the next election in 2015, he added.

His comments, in an interview on BBC Radio, came as Ed Miliband returned from a two-week holiday in the south of France to find his party at war after a slump in the polls and recent controversies over the selection of candidates for Parliament.

Mr Miliband is said to be planning a reshuffle of his shadow cabinet early next month and has been urged to be radical and move key figures including Mr Burnham and even Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor.

In an interview on Saturday, Mr Burnham warned that Labour must “shout louder” and set out bold policies by the spring or face defeat in 2015.

Asked on the Today programme whether the shadow health secretary was right, Mr Bryant insisted Labour had been arguing its case against the coalition’s policies “very clearly”.

“I disagree,” he said of the criticism that Labour had been too silent over the summer.

“I think Labour has a strong and coherent message.”

Senior sources inside Mr Miliband’s team have told the party leader to clear the front bench of figures seen as too closely linked with the era of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Mr Burnham and Mr Balls are regarded by some colleagues as damaging the party’s chances of winning the next election in 2015.

Both have been attacked by the Conservatives over their roles as Cabinet ministers in the last Labour government.

Mr Miliband will be urged to stamp his authority on an increasingly fractious parliamentary party.

He is said to be considering a major reshuffle of his team next month after a summer in which controversy over Labour’s links to trade unions have hit the party’s poll ratings.

Labour’s lead over the Conservatives has fallen from a high of 13 points in February to an average of just five points last month.

Yesterday, several Labour MPs publicly attacked each other over the party’s recent ill fortune.

Graham Stringer, the MP for Blackley and Broughton, criticised the shadow cabinet’s “deafening silence” during the summer recess and said the party was “genuinely worried” about the lack of activity from Labour's high command.

Jon Ashworth, a Labour whip responsible for enforcing the leadership’s authority, said he disagreed with Mr Stringer. But he added: “Do we need to work harder to get our messages across? Of course we do.”

Sources close to the Labour leader insist that the party has made a series of major policy announcements already this year, including on reintroducing the 10p tax rate, and on immigration and welfare reforms.